NEEO arrives on planet earth today

Instead of reading the update, I thought you might enjoy watching it. Enjoy!

Here is the transcript of what’s being said in the video:

I have some great announcements to share with you today. But before we do that, I quickly wanted to talk to you about what happened since we first met.

We created NEEO because we believe that using technology in your home should be much simpler, quicker and it should feel more natural. One simple and consistent interface in the entire home, instead of all those complicated remotes and apps; this proofed to be exactly what people were waiting for.

When it started to take off, we were just extremely grateful that our dream becomes true. The thought, that what we are creating will improve many people’s daily experience with technology is incredible.

Instead of just making a couple of hundred units first, we knew NEEO can go right away into large scale production.

The team has built an amazing manufacturing environment. Every single tool and the entire test infrastructure is all built to reach a very consistent quality for every single unit that is being manufactured. One interesting thing that people from the outside often don’t see, is that developing all the hardware, software, fixtures and test stations that are needed for large scale production is almost as complex as creating the product itself. Doing this with a small team is an even bigger challenge as it’s really the same people doing both.

Working night shifts - also due to the 3 time zones - was pretty normal. It’s hard work.

But because we really love doing what we do, we managed to get through all sorts of challenges. Often we had financial limitations or people told us that something was impossible, but we proved them wrong.

With that said I’m proud to announce some very exciting news:

1. NEEO SDK The first one is for the developers among you. We want to provide you the ideal environment to develop great software and to unlock the full potential of NEEO. The NEEO SDK is available from today on. The Beta Team already started to create incredible stuff with it. (Read more here)

2. Planet NEEO This leads me to the second announcement. The betateam, and the entire community need a place to get together. Instead of just having a standard forum... we wanted more. With amazing partners, we created a new platform which is called Planet NEEO. It’s a bit like Facebook, but just for NEEO. Together we can enjoy great content, discuss and vote on the next features, read news and share our experiences. With Planet NEEO, you will have a direct link to the developers, designers and all the crazy guys from the BETA team. (Read more here)

This goes live today. Next up is our 3rd announcement:

3. NEEO Voice API

Voice enabled speakers became pretty popular in some countries. And today, those speakers will become a lot more functional: I’m pleased to announce the NEEO Voice API, which allows voice speakers to get access to all of the over 60’000 devices that NEEO supports, and you will be able to trigger ALL your favourite recipes with it.

This is all amazing stuff and the team worked hard to bring this alive.

One of the most important factors to make this all happen was actually the support that we received along the way. You guys took a big risk by backing us early on. And in the very right moment, we received encouraging e-mails and comments from you. I want to thank you very much for that.

Of course I saved the best announcement for the end. I’m very proud to officially announce that we start shipping today!

To celebrate that we have put together a beautiful video that I want you to watch in full screen mode. Turn up the volume and enjoy! (Making of Video)

What about pre-order folks ? Can we get a timeline as to how orders will go out and when we can expect our email and when our cards will be charged for the pre order? How many units a day is being produced ?

Raphael and team, I'm so happy for you to get your vision into people's hands. When we talked at CES 2016, I was so intrigued by the story of your company, and how hard your team was working. Many other folks would have given up. I hope you're a fantastic success; the market needs your product.